1st Impressions

Tripulator is a budget tracking tool. Think of it as an electronic version of an envelope system as endorsed by folks like Dave Ramsey. Within a “billfold” or “envelope”, you can set up an opening balance/budget, and individual expenses that deduct from that. Amount remaining is calculated for you.

I think the application could add some things that would make it much better though. My suggestions would be to default entries to two decimals, display of a grand total of budget and remaining funds, ability to transfer between “envelopes”, reocurring transactions, and an optional password for the privicy conscious. It’s perfectly usable as it is though, and I plan on using it on a trip next week after clearing out the dummy data I entered for testing purposes. I look forward to seeing how this app develops.

This is the perfect tool for the couch potato. You will never need to wade through pages of the guide in order to find the next new episode of your favorite show only to loose it in all the details. This app not only shows you what and when, but also all the details of the episode. I am not sure where the app gets it’s data, but I will enjoy it as long as it lasts.

Time Box fits in a common puzzle game genre. The object is to roll around a box so that you can eventually stand it up on the designated square to exit that level. If you have played games like Edge ($4.99 for 43 levels) or CubicMan Deluxe ($2.99 for 100 levels), you know what I mean. The thing that sets this FREE app apart is that on top of the 54 levels that are included, the game has a random level generator. That and the price puts it in the Must Have list for me. You can’t beat unlimited free gameplay.

Time Box comes with 8 “worlds” to explore and the randomly created levels can be assigned three different sizes and three different difficulty levels.  You can’t really ask for more.

Ivory Tiles, and its sequel Shift, are well done puzzle games.  Using the tilt controls of the iPhone, you “slide” the game pieces to the designated areas in a very intuitive way.  Because you are moving all of the pieces at one time, “making par” is not always a simple endeavor.

The look and feel of this game is very relaxing.   At $1.99, the puzzle consists of 80 levels of increased difficulty.  The graphics are excellent.  You truly feel as if you are playing with real wood and ivory to the accompaniment of soothing music.  And if you ever successfully complete all 80 levels at “par”, you are not left without options.

Shift, currently priced at $1.99, adds to the puzzle collection with 16 tutorial levels and 70 additional ones.  It has more of a high-tech feel to it though with what it describes as a “new cyber-psychedelic landscape”.  I personally prefer the more relazing Zen feel of Ivory Tiles, but the game play is basically the same between the two programs.

If I had one wish, it would be that instead of creating a new look and feel to the same types of puzzles, that the developer offered the 70 additional puzzels available in Shift to Ivory Tiles.  For those that prefer the Shift look, it would be nice to play the Ivory Tiles levels there.  I think that puzzle lovers are used to additional levels offered as a free upgrade and may be turned off by needing to purcahse the same concept with a different interface theme just to get more levels.  I’m not sure if  it is the developers intent or not, but perhaps the iPhone 3.0 upgrade will allow us to see purchase options for additional levels in the interface of our choice if future free upgrades are out of the question.

I have recently made some disparaging remarks about the frequency at which these match-three games pop up. I was really expecting this one to be a yawner. It takes a lot to change my mind, but this game did it. Seriously. If you have Bejeweled on your iPhone, do like I did. Replace it with Montezuma. The graphics and sound are just that good.

Game play is as you would expect. Match three or more colored crystals and they disappear. Bonus points are given for larger sets. There are almost 50 levels (including the bonus ones), and 6 different “power tokens” to activate. And you can do all of this on two different dificulty levels

The bottom line is that this game is a Must-Have. It is going to be THE program that I use to show off the iPhone. And at the introductory price of $1.99, it is a bargain that you can’t afford to pass up.

iAye is a neat game.  If you remember the old Space Trader on the Palm platform (my son and I were beta testers for that one), this is a more graphical version of Space Trader in which you are not just a galactic trader, but a pirate.  It’s the perfect game for those that observe Talk Like A Pirate day as all the prompts and such are written in pirate lingo.  I have to say though that I like the pun of the game’s name more than I do the pirate talk.  My poor reading comprehension since my disability suffers in the translation department.  This probably isn’t an issue for the normal player though.

Basically, your goal goal in the game is to trade and pillage until you get a sizable fortune and control your galaxy.  Along the way, you hire a crew, upgrade your ship, and become more and more powerful.

If you would like to try the $1.99 game, no download is even necessary.  Just visit the iAye web site with your iPhone and play it online.  You may just find that it is a game that you can’t live without.

Chroma Quest is not your normal “match three” game that the iTunes store is full of.  I mean come on…just how many of those does Apple need to give us of those while turning down cool apps that actually add finctionality?  But I digress.

Chroma Quest adds a new spin because you don’t just match pieces, you combine them…their colors, that is.  Adjacent pieces with primary colors can be combined to form the mixture of the two.  For example, you can combine red and yellow to make an orange piece. When you tap two primary colors, the first one combines with the second and clears the spot where the first one used to be.  As if that isn’t unique enough, you can also “split” the orange, green, and purple pieces into their primary colors.  For example, if you tap on an orange tile and an adjacent red one, it “splits off” the red from the orange and combines it with the original red one…effectively switching the places of the red and orange tiles.

All these combinations and splits come in real handy when trying to clear the board.  You do this by tappling on two adjacent tiles of the same color.  You can also clear sequences of greater than two by selecting the first tile in the sequence, then selecting the last tile in the sequence.  If you can clear all the pieces from the board, or all but one piece, you can advance to the next level.  This $0.99 game comes with an unlimited number of levels, so running out of game play will never be a problem.  Because of that and the unique game play for an excellent price, I have to recommend this game.  It makes my Must Have list.

This is one cool app. It’s basically a multi-layered multi-color digital spirograph. Everything from the width of the pen to the number of loops can be configured by increasing or decreasing the shown value by tapping the left or right side of the screen. When you get a design you like, you can save it to the background and add something new on top if it.

There is a free version you can play with, or a Pro version available for $1.99. It adds a lot of additional functionality like ability to save your designs so you can share them our use them as wallpaper. For some examples of what this app can do, check out the Trochoid Pro Gallery.

If you like math, fractals, or any kind of computer generated art, check out this really cool app. It’s a keeper.

RoboSnake3D takes the old Snake game to a whole new dimension – literally.  This snake not only grows as you progress through your game, but you can climb up on boxes and even go under or over yourself.  I typically don’t like those timed games where you are under pressure to act fast, but I found this one addicting.

The game has also taken on a high-tech feel as well.  The head of the snake is called the “central processing unit”.  ”Eating” power-ups called “batteries” are required to power additional “expansion units”.  This, on top of the 3D nature of the game play really brings this game into the 21st century.  This $0.99 game has excellent graphics, excellent music, excellent game play, and is definitely worth a buck.

Shape Escape

Shape Escape is a twist of the old Sokoban game.  Your character is this cute little gray elephant.  You use the arrow keys to push around colored drums and make them fall into the same colored holes.  Once that occurs, both the drum and the hole disappears.  To make the game a bit more of a challenge, it has a bit of a “maze” type board layout.  The game gets more complex as you contine as you end up with both drums and blocks.  And if that didn’t complicate things enough, if you push something into the wrong colored hole, it gets stuck.  You have to start the level over.

If you do not want to use the arrow keys in the bottom corner, you can turn on an option to overlay large arrows on the game board itself.  The game is very responsive to input..sometimes a bit more responsive than I expected and I would end up moving a block too far.  For this reason, I recommend that you play some in practice mode until you get accustomed to it.

The game has almost 200 different levels and costs $2.99 in the iTunes store.  A free/lite version is available to check it out.  If you do happen to make it through all the levels, you can always go back through and try to beat the stored personal score of how many moves it took you at each level.  If you like Sokoban type puzzle games, I recommend giving this one a try.  The changes to that familiar concept will be refreshing and provide you with many hours of game play.

If you would like to see the game in action, here is a YouTube video of the next version of Shape Escape.